Land rollers are used for soil compaction and terrain flattening in various applications, including agriculture. In agriculture, farmers use land rollers prior to planting and ploughing to develop a consistent surface with uniform soil density to aid in the planting, growing and cultivation of plants. Various other agricultural uses are known including packing seed beds, or pushing rocks and other debris into the ground for example.
One example of a land roller is disclosed in Canadian patent application 2,635,377 by Degelman et al. In this instance a central roller is provided behind which two wings are pivotally coupled for movement between laterally outward field working positions and rearward trailing transport positions. Each of the wings includes an inner roller and an outer roller in which the outer roller is positioned rearward of the inner roller to permit some overlap between the two rollers. In the transport position a considerable overall width is required due to the overlap between the rollers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,792 by Almer discloses a further example of a land roller in which the rollers on the wings are in line with the central roller and pivot upwardly into a transport position. In this instance the rollers on the wings are accordingly much smaller than the central roller to permit their lifting into the transport position. Due to the rollers being in line with one another, a gap is provided between adjacent rollers requiring additional trailing rollers at the gaps which add to the mass and size of the wings.
In some instances it is desirable to tow the land roller behind other implements, for example a seeder. Using wings which fold rearwardly into the transport position such as disclosed above with regard to Degelman requires that the implement be displaced rearwardly to deploy the wings from the transport position to the forward working position. Such a movement is not possible when a plurality of implements are connected in series so that one is typically limited to smaller rollers such as disclosed in Almer in such an instance.
In other instances it is desirable to level protruding mounds of earth ahead of the roller to provide a more level and consistent surface being packed. Typical attempts in the prior art to do so required vary large and heavy beams to resist damage when encountering obstacles. The heavy beams are very short and only used with small rollers due to the considerable strength required to prevent damage thereof. To further protect the beams, known designs require a breakaway mounting of the beams which permits upward release of the beam similar to a cultivator trip. The resulting complexity of multiple heavy beams with release mechanisms associated therewith is very complex in construction and results in a very wide transport width due to the excess material and equipment provided.
In further instances, it is desirable to use rollers for flattening a cover crop. A cover crop roller typically comprises a roller drum with various lugs or protrusions projecting radially outward therefrom for engaging the crop. The protrusions are required on the roller for crimping the crop to effectively flatten the cover crop. As the lugs are essential for crimping, conventional cover crop rollers are typically dedicated to the single use of rolling cover crops.
In some instances seeding kits are used with land rollers to assist with pasture renovation. Many growers are adding a self fertilizing legume to the grass pastures, or adding grass seed to existing pastures. Others are known to mount an airflow unit on the frame of the land roller which is available by Valmar. This unit has a wide transport with the tiny seeds being dropped 30 or more inches in height making the operation a no wind or slow wind at best operation only.